Pallets are used in a variety of industries and generally act as platforms that facilitate the transport of bulky or heavy materials. The most common pallet is a wooden pallet having a deck constructed of a plurality of slats. While wooden pallets enjoy widespread use, they have some disadvantages including their susceptibility to insect infestation, warping, and rotting. Consequently, wooden pallets must be repeatedly treated resulting in substantial maintenance costs.
As a solution to these problems, plastic pallets have been developed. As will be appreciated, plastic pallets may be more expensive than their wooden counterparts. But, in general, they weather better than wooden pallets and are not susceptible to insect infestation allowing continued use of the pallet without further treatment.
While plastic pallets have generally improved upon their wooden counterparts, current pallet designs still have some drawbacks. In particular, to obtain the necessary strength for supporting large loads, these pallets may require a great amount of plastic material and are quite heavy. In particular, compression molded plastic pallets may have a weight of at least 30 pounds, and injection molded pallets may have a weight of about 16 to 17 pounds The present designs include a number of downwardly extending legs that extend from a deck made of a plurality of thin slats that are arranged in a screen or lattice-like fashion with a plurality of holes formed therebetween. These slats generally are thin members that span the entire width of the pallet between the legs. These members are particularly susceptible to bending and buckling when subjected to heavy loads. Consequently, it is desirable to design a pallet with an improved deck that is less susceptible to buckling.
Moreover, because of their cost, existing pallets often must be returned after a shipment is completed. Consequently, additional expense is incurred to ship the empty pallets back to the user. A lighter weight pallet would be beneficial in terms of the cost of shipping the pallets back after use or may be effective in one-way shipments, where the pallet is not returned.